Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion

The acclaimed chronicler of London, Peter Ackroyd, explores the life and times of Charles Dickens, the great Victorian author. It is a story of rags to riches, demonstrating how much Dickens drew upon his own experiences in his fiction and what drove him to call for social reform. Charles Dickens's life is a story of rags to riches, complete with bankruptcy, prison, forced child labour, and fame and fortune overshadowed by guilt and secrecy - rather like the plot of one of his novels. Indeed, Dickens drew strongly on his own experiences as the source for much of his fiction. Here the author offers a fresh view of Dickens's remarkable life story. Dickens's novels brim with references; they are located in the places he lived in and visited, peopled with characters he knew.